| The novel Gaviota consists of two stories, set fifty years apart. The World War II story, told principally through Judge Wilbur Clarke’s writings and the recollections of Manuel Bodaglio, relates various incidents that took place along the central coast of California and the actions of the local citizenry—in particular Ben and Sondra Potter—in response. The modern-day (1994) story follows the machinations and agonies of Paul “Pike” Seger, a prominent Los Angeles lawyer who has been nominated to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, as he seeks the truth about the indictment of Ben Potter, his father, for treason during time of war.
Both stories are fiction, but both have significant historical underpinnings. As I state in the “Author’s Note” at the beginning of the book, much of the factual material is derived from contemporaneous essays and news accounts. For example, the apprehension of numerous Japanese men in 1942 upon suspicion of having signaled or otherwise abetted a supposed Japanese invasion was reported in the Los Angeles newspapers; as was the fire that killed a Japanese-American family as it motored inland to avoid relocation. Likewise, in the modern-day story, the “sentence enhancements” and “three-strike” laws that play a prominent part in the prosecution of Alberto Buelna have been regularly featured in news accounts, California being reputed to have the most draconian such statutes. The following bibliography does not include such sources; nor does it include scores of other references I relied on. Rather, I’ve listed only books that constitute my primary research, some of them more salient than others, but all lending factual support to the story of Ben and Sondra Potter, Pike Seger and the other characters whose tale this is. A Century of Dishonor, Helen Hunt Jackson (Ross & Haines, Inc. 1964 ed.) Americans Betrayed, Morton Grodzins (University of Chicago Press 1949) At Dawn We Slept, Gordon W. Prange (McGraw-Hill Book Co. 1981) Bat Bomb, Jack Couffer (University of Texas Press 1992) Desert Exile, Yoshiko Uchida (University of Washington Press 1982) Donovan, America’s Master Spy, Richard Dunlop (Rand McNally & Co. 1982) Executive Order 9066, Maisie and Richard Conrat (California Historical Society 1972) Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne and James Houston (Houghton Mifflin Co. 1973) For the Duration, Lee Kennett (Charles Scribner’s Sons 1985) German Prisoners of War at Camp Cooke, Jeffrey Geiger (McFarland & Co. 1996) Goleta, The Good Land, Walter A. Tompkins (Pioneer Publishing Co., rev. ed. 1976) Historical Ranches of San Diego, Cecil C. Moyer (Union-Tribune Publishing Co. 1969) History of California, vol. IV, Hubert Howe Bancroft (The History Co. 1886) Impounded People, Edward H. Spicer, et al., (University of Arizona Press 1969) Infamy, John Toland (Doubleday & Co. 1982) It Happened in Old Santa Barbara, Walter A. Tompkins (Pioneer Publishing Co. 1976) Looking Back, Justin M. Ruhge (Quantum Imaging Associates 1991) Manzanar, John Armor and Peter Wright (Times Books 1988) Marines of the Margarita, Robert M. Witty and Neil Morgan (Frye & Smith Ltd. 1970) Pearl Harbor: Final Judgement, Henry Clausen and Bruce Lee (Crown Publishers 1992) Prisoners Without Trial, Roger Daniels (Hill and Wang 1993) Ramona, A Story, Helen Hunt Jackson (Little, Brown 1939) *Retaliation, Bert Webber (Oregon State University Press 1975) Stalag: USA, Judith M. Gansberg (Thomas Y. Crowell Co. 1977) The Hunt for Tokyo Rose, Russell Warren Howe (Madison Books 1990) The Japanese through American Eyes, Sheila Johnson (Stanford University Press 1988) The Silver Dons, Richard F. Pourade (Union-Tribune Publishing Co. 1963) *The Western Front, Justin M. Ruhge (Quantum Imaging Associates, rev. ed. 1989) Those Were the Days, Gary B. Coombs, et al., (Institute for American Research 1986) Years of Infamy, Michi Nishiura Weglyn (University of Washington Press 1976) *The two volumes contain the most detailed information, including photographs, of the fortification and the submarine attack along the Gaviota coast in 1942. Both are in limited circulation, although each is available at the Santa Barbara public library. |
| Gaviota :: the novel :: author's notes & bibliography |
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